José Tolentino Mendonça, a 51-year-old priest, poet and theologian, comes from Machico, a Portuguese city of the island of Madeira. At the moment, he is the vice-rector of the Portuguese Catholic University – UCP – where he teaches and he is also the chaplain of Capela do Rato, in Lisbon.

Among poetry, pastoral texts, theatre and essays, Fr. Tolentino wrote more than 20 books and received many prizes, among which we can mention the Prize of the City of Lisbon (Poetry), Prize of Essay PEN/Club 2005, Poetry Prize Inês de Castro, Italian Literary Prize Res Magnae (2015), Prize APE – Portuguese authors’ society – with the Municipality of Loulé (2016) and the Prize of Poetry Teixeira de Pascoaes (2016).

Some of his books were published abroad, for example, among others The Hidden Treasure – The art of Searching within (O Tesouro Escondido), in 2011, published in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain and all Latin America, Czech Republic and English speaking countries; or Our Father Who Art on Earth, also from 2011, (Pai-nosso que estais na terra), published in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain and all Latin America, Czech Republic, USA, French speaking countries, Indonesia, England, Ireland, Australia and Croatia.

His book The Hippopotamus of God (2013) is part of the list of works recommended by the National Reading Plan.

His more recent work is the Construction of Jesus, published in 2015, which original title is A construção de Jesus.

He holds a PhD in Biblical Theology from the Portuguese Catholic University; he was awarded the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword - Grau de Comendador da Ordem de Sant’iago da Espada - awarded for merits in literature, science, and the arts; he is a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture, chronicle in media.

João Gil

The 61-year-old musician João Gil was born in Covilhã and started to be known with the group Trovante, founded in August 1976 along with Artur Costa, Manuel Faria and the brothers Luis and João Represas.

But the recognition of the public and the critics only came in 1981 when the group records the third album Baile no Bosque. In November 1991, João Gil leaves the group Trovante and founds Moby Dick and two years after, in 1993, he starts the project Ala dos Namorados.

He participated in projects such as Rio Grande and Cabeças no Ar and created the Philharmonic Gil, before starting a solo career along with other projects such as Baile Popular and Quinteto Lisboa.

This is not his first experience in the field of the religious music after his work in 2012 Missa Brevis, interpreted by the group Cantate, composed of some musicians he has worked with over his career: Luís Represas, Manuel Rebelo, Manuel Paulo, Diana Vinagre and João Gil.

It was a project with music based on liturgical texts, in Latin, and the objective of taking part culturally in the Year of the Faith (2012-2013).

«When it occurred to me the idea of composing “Missa Brevis”, I remembered when I was a child in Covilhã and I was an altar server; I remembered my brother José Alberto Gil, composer, with who I shared the bedroom and my days were overflowed with torrent of Mozart and Bach; I remembered my mother, an extremely sensitive person who communicated to us good sense and understanding of the spiritual world», he then explained.

Vocal Emotion

Eleven boys and girls of the group Vocal Emotion sing the hymn and are the characters of the music video of the Hymn of the visit with pictures collected from Valinhos and the Prayer Area, next to the Jubilee Portico.

This group belongs to the Cultural Association Vocal Emotion, which goal is to bring to pop music and light music the formulas of teaching and of work of the so-called erudite music.